‘In a happy barn yard some years ago a seemingly unimportant event occurred which was destined to vitally effect the future of that little world. Mr. and Mrs. Duck were expecting.’ So were the opening lines to a 1942 Looney Tunes Cartoon, The Ducktators, in which two ducks, Mr and Mrs Duck, became mystified by movement inside a uniquely black-coloured egg.

When the egg hatches, a white duckling with a toothbrush moustache emerges, wearing a swastika armband, who immediately begins to shout ‘Sieg Heil’! as he gives the Nazi salute.

Throughout his adulthood, the duck, who represents Adolf Hitler, gives aggressive speeches to other ducks and geese, with his only ally being a large Neapolitan-accented black goose, portraying Benito Mussolini. They are joined by a ‘politically incorrect’ bucked-teeth duck who plays the role of the Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In the end, the ‘Dove of Peace’, with the help of an American soldier and others, exterminates the Axis trio. There is then a promotional to buy US Saving Bonds and Stamps to support the war effort.

During World War II, animated productions, such as The Ducktators were typical with the end to both demonize the enemy through humour and to help relieve aggression Americans were undergoing in society. In another 1942 production, Der Fuehrer’s Face (originally titled Donald Duck in Nutziland) from Walt Disney, Donald Duck is caught in the hard life of a recruit in the Reich army, between fuses to be assembled while shouting ‘Heil Hitler’ and passages from Mein Kampf to be memorized.

He then wakes up and finds himself in his bed (wearing stars-and-stripes patterned pyjamas), and realizes that the whole experience was a nightmare. He then sees the shadow of a figure holding its right hand up. Believing it is a Nazi salute, he begins to do so himself until he sees that it is the shadow of a miniature Statue of Liberty, holding her torch high in her right hand. Remembering that he lives in the United States, Donald Duck embraces the statue saying: ‘Am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America!’

Such slapstick entertainment, in what was viewed as the age of innocence, had a subtle message, that of reminding the average citizen of the sacrifices to be made in order to maintain our liberty and freedom. Regrettably, with the politically correct movement of left-wing politicians and non-governmental organizations,

what was deemed innocent and humane is today defined as discriminatory and banned from public viewing.

In the United Kingdom, for example, the classic Mary Poppins has too ended up in the crosshairs of political correctness. The British Board of Film Classification, sixty years after the release, have judged that is no longer a film for everyone, but a work for ‘accompanied children’. The reason given for the decision ‘lies in the “discriminatory language” that is said to be apparent in the use of the derogatory term “Hottentots”, originally used by white Europeans for the nomadic peoples of Africa, to refer to chimney sweeps with soot-stained faces.’

In 1991 then-President George H.W. Bush had touched upon this topic in his commencement address at the University of Michigan said:

‘We find free speech under assault throughout the United States, including on some college campuses. The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land…. The disputants treat sheer force — getting their foes punished or expelled, for instance — as a substitute for the power of ideas.’

Political correct language has stooped down quite low even with trivial things, such as replacing the word ‘snowman’ with the gender-neutral ‘snowperson’. Under the claim to uphold equality and defend the vulnerable, these antagonists have taken a couple of pages from the communists and the National Socialists to reach their totalitarian goals, that of complementing their insecurities and irrational sensitivities.

Political Correctness: Another Name for Totalitarianism

The notion of ‘political correctness’ first appeared in the Marxist–Leninist vocabulary following the Bolshevik Revolution (or October coup) of 1917 to describe strict adherence to policies and principles of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party. The term was invented by the Soviets to camouflage the truth about events and policies in Communist Russia that had resulted in mass murders, the starvation of millions, and slave labour in the gulags. The ‘party line’ was for all loyal communist party members to promote the same ‘politically correct truths’ about the ‘good life’ under totalitarian government.

The Nazis were also employing propaganda tools to indoctrinate people. Reich Chancellor and Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Dr Joseph Goebbels used media communications to brainwash the German populace with concept that they were the heirs of the superior Aryan race. For those who did not adhere, there were life threatening consequences.

The name of the present-day trend that emerged in the West in the 1970s

was borrowed from the English translation of Chinese Communist texts, particularly those of the Cultural Revolution,

seen by most in the New Left as doctrinaire and Orwellian. It is, effectively, a communist philosophy that seeks to bring so-called equality to all. In effect, it brandishes and stigmatizes reason and plurality of thought, as if their motto is ‘Your rights end where my emotions begin’. 

Consequently, we now have the communist-inspired Woke. Under the pretension to promote ‘anti-racism’, it has not only captivated university campuses and social media, but it has also infiltrated the mindset in the workplace, in both the public and private sectors. This has given birth to cancel culture, which, like the National Socialists, both censor or restrict free speech and erase or reconstruct history to befit their whims. Those who refuse to fall in line are paradoxically denounced as a threat to liberty and are marginalized, such as those who oppose the right of children to biologically change their sex.

Their method is to usurp power structures, simultaneously globalizing our conversation and privatizing our beliefs, whereby coming to a common agreement on norms and virtues of speech has be all but impossible. The left’s policing of content of language, imagery, and thought, deciphering what is ‘offensive’ has created a type of police state. It should be no surprise why ‘Happy Holidays’ has replaced ‘Merry Christmas’, and why Donald Trump  became so popular with frustrated Americans when he presented himself as an anti-establishment politician by declaring ‘Merry Christmas Again’.

The reader may think that associating political correctness with the communists and the Nazis is over the top. Well, consider this: Last month in the state of Indiana, a Catholic couple appealed to the Supreme Court to hold the state accountable for keeping their child out of their home after they declined to use his chosen name and pronouns. Mary and Jeremy Cox were investigated by Indiana officials for refusing to refer to their son with pronouns or a name inconsistent with his biological sex.

The boy was both taken away and kept from living in his parents’ home due to their disagreement with the child’s gender identity because of their religious beliefs. Notably, upon completing the investigation, the state determined the allegations of abuse against Mary and Jeremy were unsubstantiated, but still argued that the discord over gender identity was distressing to their child.

These actions are not that all different from the bully tactics used by the Soviets or the National Socialists. It is no wonder why the patriotic animated classics, like The Ducktators and Der Fuehrers Face are seen as offensive, if not oppressive, by the politically correct left when in reality they are the ones who today are offensive and oppressive.